Raised in farming, engineer student and paramedic graduate, Clayton Poole is the Sask NDP candidate for Cut Knife-Turtleford in the Oct. 28 provincial elections.
Question 1: Who are you?
Poole: I took mechanical engineering, but I never practised – I didn’t want to be stuck indoors. I worked in a coal mine driving rock truck. I was a carpenter. Then a heavy equipment operator. Call me jack of all trades because my most recent career was a rail car mechanic. I grew up on a farm and I still help with harvesting. Farming is in my blood.
Question 2: Why do you want to be an MLA?
Poole: Saskatchewan is an amazing, wonderful place. And it seems that over the last six years, it has just gotten worse and worse. I felt the need to help out. In the very core of myself, I am a helper. Working in the field – I am helping my family. When I was working as a paramedic, I was helping people every day.
Question 3: What is your platform?
Poole: People’s purse strings are getting a lot tighter, and they need some immediate relief which is why the Sask NDP wants to suspend the gas tax right off the hop. Take the PST off groceries. When you buy your milk and potatoes, you’re not being charged taxes on the staples that you need. We want to make things, so that when people start a business, we want to support them better so that they have all the incentives to grow the small rural businesses that have made Saskatchewan proud. People are asking about the national NDP and how we are different. We are the Saskatchewan NDP, and we are against the carbon tax. We are against the waste of the federal government. We want our money to go to the things that Saskatchewan needs, like healthcare, education – so we can fund ourselves and thrive. Carla Beck (Sask NDP leader) has asked nationally that the equalization payments (to Saskatchean) in education and healthcare should be increased. We want more coming back than what goes out right now.
Question 4: What is your plan for the riding?
Poole: We are in favour of pipelines and helping our energy sector. So, with Strathcona Resources being a big employer in Hamlin, in our riding, we want to help them with their pipeline and energy needs. We want to push back the 2035 deadline of the federal government to phase out the sale of gas-powered vehicles. When I did rail car repair, I worked on the Strathcona site and there are a lot of great people there. And they deserve our province’s support.
Question 5: What is your plan to deal with homelessness and the unhoused?
Poole: I am shocked and appalled that homelessness in Saskatoon has gone from 100 encampments two years ago, to over a 1000. And a lot of that is directly related to the underfunding of mental health institutions. There is an amazing mental health hospital in North Battleford that is so underutilized because there is not enough nurses and doctors working there so they can take in the patients they need. There are waitlists that are six months and two years long.
Question 6: What is your plan to deal with crime and insecurity?
Poole: A lot of the people who are let out onto the streets who are not criminally liable but are mentally incapable of making the right decisions – they need help or medications to get them to be the best person they can be, if they were better mentally supported our crime would go down significantly. And if we hadn’t wasted $14 million in administrative costs on a Saskatchewan Marshals Plan, we could be investing that into the RCMP and have more boots on the ground. I feel that a lot of times the RCMP are under supported.
Question 7: What are your thoughts on healthcare?
Poole: I know at the Cut Knife Medical Clinic – they are woefully understaffed, and they could use a lot of help. People are not coming there for jobs because (some) of the jobs are part time. Right now, it’s a question of staffing. We just need to attract the people and make these positions full time, so that we can take the influx and actually deal with them – instead of having people wait in the ER for eight hours because there is only one person doing intake or one person doing triage.
Question 8: What are your thoughts on the economy in the riding?
Poole: The oil sector is doing well. It’s booming. We got SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) plants in Meota, Edam. Those are doing well. We could have had more rain in July. June was good to us. And we could have had less rain in August because that made harvest a lot worse – but farmers are doing decently for this year. With jobs, under Scott Moe, we have lost 40,000 rural jobs. Because we are so close to the Alberta border here, a lot of people go to Lloydminster for gas and groceries. If we were able to take off PST for gas, it would take away that incentive for people to drive to Lloydminster for gas. Maybe they will get their gas and groceries here and a little bit more money goes into the community here instead of Alberta.
Question 9: What are your thoughts on the provincial economy?
Poole: Saskatchewan is really interconnected. So, if we start building pipelines, Evraz Steel does a lot better. Those union 1200 workers there, they start working and start putting money back into the economy. If we stop cutting our work from all of our crown corporations – a lot of those jobs that used to be done by crown workers are being contracted out to Alberta and Ontario companies.
Question 10: Final thoughts
Poole: Scott Moe, in one year alone with the Sask Party raised taxes 31 times. We are paying over 40 per cent more PST. It’s going to be an uphill battle. A lot of people really identify the Saskatchewan NDP as the national NDP. We are our own independent party.
